Tuesday, January 31, 2017

When the Dollar store
sector began selling fresh food Foodservice
Solutions® team noted that it would be an more than an incremental
sector game
changer. So last week
when Dollar General announced that had opened an express store (DGX) with a
focus on fresh food fast our team and regular readers of this blog were not
surprised, rather we cheered its opening.

With a smaller footprint
the 3,400 square-foot store filled with food including grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food in the form of Grab-N-Go food and
beverages out team knew it would continue to garner customer adoption.

In DGX Dollar General will
attempt build on past success clues for growth and all indications more fresh
food is the answer. It must be noted that between 2010 and 2015, according to
research consulting firm Conlumino,
annual dollar store sales increased from $30
billion to $45 billion, a 50% growth rate that
far outpaced retail sales growth during the same period.

The fastest growing
grocery store in the United States is Aldi.
Aldi is famous for saying “poor people most save, and rich people like
to”. I guess the Dollar General
understands that as well. According to the NPD Group, one quarter of the shoppers at
three of the top dollar store chains are millennials from households earning
$100,000 a year or more.

Millennials are as time
starved as any generation and they love the value and the quick convenience
dollar stores offer. Dollar General has taken extra steps here by offering home
décor, electronics and other upmarket offerings in the new DGX.

Grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food portioned for one or two that
can be sold as meal components empowering mix and match meal bundling will be a
success for Dollar General as long as they remember fresh, flavorful, fast make
for fabulous food sales.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Complexity free food is more than just
transparency in food according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant
Guru® Steven Johnson. Grocerant
niche ‘Better-for-you’ fresh prepared food that is portable and portioned for
one or two continues to drive demand in retail foodservice. Consumers today are
seeking ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared food as meal components that can be
bundled in to a customized family meal according to Johnson.

Grocery stores of a bygone era thought
they could responded to consumers demand to drive sales simply by opening more stores,
larger stores, or ‘scale’. That did work
when food choice came from a can or a box that could sit on a shelf for years
and slotting fees paid for the shelf space. However, that simply put was a
mindset of yesterday’s food retailers the ilk of A&P and others
still taking slotting fees.

Johnson continued “retailers back in the day felt that all
they need was more scale to compete successfully with other grocery stores.
Today, grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can be
found at companies the ilk of Wegmans, Green Zebra Grocery, New Season Market, Wawa, Sheetz, KFC, McDonald’s, and Papa Murphy’s.

Complexity free in the minds-eye of
the consumer according to the team at Tacoma, WA based FoodserviceSolutions.us means, less
meal preparation time, little or no cooking, less food waste, less time
shopping, less packaging, local, fresh fast food, in-season food, and portions
for one or two. In fact one of the key findings was no matter the size of the
household fresh was best and the ability to mix and match meal components was
crucial. Does your company look more
like yesterday
or tomorrow?

Foodservice
Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom line
profits. Are you looking a customer ahead?
Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information
or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success
does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued
success.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Consumers continue to be time
starved, lacking a cooking from scratch skill-set that empowers meal
innovation have found a solution. That solutions is grocerant niche mix and
match meal component bundling too create a platform were every family meal is a
‘happy
meal’ according to Foodservice
Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Johnson continued “grocerant niche
fresh prepared food that is portable and portioned for one or two people has
become a weekly mainstay in most US households. Consumers are buying grocerant
niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meal components from restaurants,
Conveniences stores, Drug stores, and Grocery stores.

Excluding
restaurant meal take-out mix and match items Technomic a Wingsight Media publication research company reported that the
size of the grocerant niche market currently is $12.9 billion and the largest
category within that is grocery store with approximately $2.9 billion.

Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can be found in at many restaurants in the
form of Take-Out, Take-Away, or To-Go items. At convenience stores as fresh prepared
sandwich, pizza, or from a Grocery or C-store as a meal component item offered
in self-service chilled or heated merchandiser.

Increasing
restaurant’s the ilk Olive Garden and McDonalds have are offing grocerant meal
options including Dinner Today and Dinner Tomorrow or Blitz Box creating a pantry busing
platform that consumer are migrating too.

Grocerant
niche mix and match bundling empowers consumers to customize and personalize
each meal for each dinner without having to cook each different item from
scratch and saving enormous amounts of time.
We are in a time where multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational
families continue to expand the grocerant niche is the platform that can make
each meal a ‘happy meal’.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Filled
with contemporary customer relevance DRYN+DANE
clearly has the ‘halo’ of grocerant niche ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food as an asset according to Foodservice Solutions®Grocerant
Guru®.

DRYN+DANE has
cultivated point of differentiation platform consisting of an “innovative
environment, serving healthy and delicious meals of the finest basic
ingredients in customer driven creative combinations”. Clearly that is working for them as this week
the company is announced a 100-store expansion.

The platform of ‘better-for-you’ has proven to
be a successful invitation for “busy moms and school kids in for breakfast,
lunch, snacks and dinner take-out, to sales men and women, looking for a
smarter road food alternative, according
to the staff at BRYN+DANE.

Bryn Davis Founder
and CEO of BRYN+DANE's "We are very consciously challenging the
conventional fast food industry," The ability to garner new customer
adoption with customer relevance is important BRYN+DANE ability to leverage
technology a “touch screen ordering system which opens up, rather than
restricts the variety of offerings available to patrons, and local sourcing of
foods from traditional farms and industrial scale urban indoor grow houses”
expands its customer relevance according to our own Grocerant

Retail foodservice continues to evolve
and companies the ilk of BRYN+DANE,
Snap Kitchen, New Season’s Market,
and Green Zebra Grocery that
simultaneously offer ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat food that is portable in a contemporized setting
with technology will continue to find incremental success.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is the global leader in grocerant niche
business development. We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment
opportunities. Has your company had a
Grocerant ScoreCard completed? Want
one? Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Friday, January 27, 2017

Success does leave
clues and while Starbucks sales continued to grow
Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson
believes that the most impressive numbers that were reported during Starbucks
fiscal first quarter this week were those that highlighted how well they were
evolving with consumers.

As retail customers
are dynamic not static it’s clear to the entire team at Foodservice Solutions® that Starbucks
ability to adapt, evolve, while edifying customer relevance is second to none
in the retail foodservice industry. Here
let’s look at some of the numbers we find very important:

1.$2.1 billion loaded
on Starbucks Cards in the U.S. and Canada in Q1, up 15 percent year-over-year

So, why are these
numbers so important? The answer is they
are branded. Every time a company can edify the
customer relationship with a branded item it’s important. However when payments and money are branded
the relationship is even more valuable.

Starbucks U.S.
comparable store sales increased 3 percent comprised of a 5 percent increase in
average ticket and a 2 percent decrease in transactions. Credit an increase in Grocerant
niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced
business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional
food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and
menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Johnson
continued stating “call them small meals, smart meals, or savory meals Snap
Kitchen is cultivating customers in search of food with the ‘halo’ of
better-for-you’ and Snap Kitchen is offering fresh fast convenience with
focusing on quality, healthy food as the foundation to expand nationwide.

Utilizing
three of Foodservice
Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® FIVE P’S of Food
Marketingas foundational elements edifying the
brand to consumers. The three are
Portability, Positioning, and Price. Snap Kitchen makes healthy, handmade meals
from scratch for consumers who want fast food that isn't junk food according to
the company. Each mean can fit into gluten-free, paleo, vegan, and other diets.
They have a shelf life of five to seven days and result in very little food
waste another ‘better-for-you attribute particularly for Millennials.

Snap Kitchen CEO
David Kirchhoff stated "If Whole
Foods and 7-Eleven had a baby, it would be Snap Kitchen" … "It's as
if we took a classically trained chef and put them in a cage fight with a
nutritionist."

Kirchhoff t continued
“The company's biggest day is Monday, when customers purchase multiple meals
for the week, and the average check for a "mature" store is $25. …Our
cycle is counter to the restaurant cycle. We solve for what's for dinner on
Tuesday, not the big outing on Saturday," old the news outlet.

Snap Kitchen understands
our Omni-Channel retail world and even though they only have 45 units opne
today that begun operating a wholesale business alongside its retail operation,
and provide prepared foods to some Whole Foods Markets.

Success does leave
clues and edifying customer relevance you can place a Snap Kitchen order online
for in-store pickup. The mobile app also provides delivery through Uber Rush in
certain markets, including Chicago according to Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru®.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Edifying Chipotle
Mexican Grill’s brand with Millennials and Gen Z consumers is key to regaining
lost customer while increasing current customer frequency. With the Super Bowl fast approaching Chipotle
has entered a partnership with Avocados from Mexico for a new online game
called ‘Cado Crusher, where users have three rounds to smash and combine
ingredients to make their own version of Chipotle’s delicious guacamole.

Ok so I’m not a
Millennial but it does sound both inviting and fun. Game players are rewarded
with a mobile offer good for a free order of chips and guacamole, with purchase
of an entrée, at any Chipotle in the U.S. Users may play ‘Cado Crusher anytime
January 24 through February 7.

Mark Crumpacker,
chief marketing and development officer at Chipotle stated “This game provides a fun way for our
customers to see the short list of quality ingredients that go into each and
every batch of our scratch-made guacamole, while also giving them a chance to
enjoy some chips and guac on us to complement their meal,”

Foodservice Solutions®
team says this is all about customer relevance. Millennials and Gen Z’s like to
play games and 85% of all Millennials
have a mobile smart phone. Fresh and fast are key drivers of
grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-n-Eat fresh prepared food sales success
according to our own Grocerant Guru®. The fast is Chipotle’s guacamole is made
from scratch throughout the day. Interestingly each of Chipotle’s 2,200-plus
restaurants goes through approximately five cases of avocados a day.

Alvaro Luque, president
of Avocados From Mexico noted that “Avocados
From Mexico is excited to partner with Chipotle this month to celebrate the
star ingredient in their popular guacamole—fresh, great-tasting avocados,” stating
“Guacamole super fans, and those new to Chipotle, will enjoy the ‘Cado Crusher
game as part of our promotion around the Big Game, and we are thrilled to team
up with Chipotle to provide free guacamole to their customers across the
country.” At Chipotle it’s Game On and Super Bowl season.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is the global leader in grocerant niche
business development. We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment
opportunities. Has your company had a
Grocerant ScoreCard completed? Want
one? Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Regular readers of
this blog know that Stripes Convenience
stores
found incremental success when they edified their foodservice offerings with Laredo Taco. The branded program emphasizing Ready-2-Eat handmade,
made-to-order food at the chain's new next-generation stores in Texas
and Louisiana is proving very successful.

Eduardo Pereda, vice
president of marketing, convenience brands at Sunoco stated “"When we
first envisioned our new store design, we knew based on customer feedback that
it was very important that our 'Made Right Here' approach came through loud and
clear," ..."As a result, the next-generation design brings the
tortilla-making experience front and center. That means our customers are able
to see for themselves that our kitchens consistently serve up delicious,
authentic Mexican food that is made in-store from the freshest
ingredients."

Regular readers also
know that our Grocerant Guru® maintains that
visceral food prep is both consumer interactive and participatory each are key
to garnering incremental customer migration.

Pereda continued "The
new design also showcases our much-loved Stripes convenience store offering
with a clean, modern interior, and spacious aisles that allow our guests to
move throughout the store seamlessly as they shop. We know our customers love
the variety of our fountain and packaged beverage vaults," … "Making these high-traffic areas easier
to access, and placing our check-out in the center of the store, helps our
teams to assist our customers quickly. Our customers have responded very
positively."

Monday, January 23, 2017

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson continues to work with manufactures
and retailers positioning Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. So, what does out team think will see as
emerging trends in 2017?

1.Increased offering of
prepacked
meals, meal components with full flavor. Specifically multicultural consumers will demand
more options in Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that reflect
their heritage. Specifically in the US
we will see Vietnamese, Korean, Philippines, and Spanish influence will
continue to grow.

2.“Better for you” foods including
seafood that are lower in fats with high protein sold as Ready-2-Eat mix and
match meal components bundled with vegetables.

3.Digital Marketing of fresh food will
offer “What’s for Dinner” specials of seasonal items Salmon in the fall, cod in
the winter, Lobster in the summer, priced with equal portions of seasonal
urgency and ease of preparation on a platform of convenience.

5.Plates, Portions, and
Protein restaurants will once again begin using smaller dinner plates,
grocery stores will increasingly sell smaller single serve portioned meal
components, and protein will return to appropriate size more in line with FDA
portion guidelines.

The halo of ‘better-for-you’ will continue to be a key
undercurrent developing in 2017 according to the team at Foodservice
Solutions®. Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food both
as meals and meal components will expand into new non-traditional retail
locations. Thus expanding customer migration, elevating disruption for
traditional chain restaurants, while pantry busting legacy grocery stores.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Remember when Thomas
Friedman wrote the book ‘The Word is Flat’ few understood the undercurrents of a flat world were having within the
foodservice sector. Foodservice
Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson and regular readers of this blog however were well aware of the pantry
busting disruption the Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh
prepared food was causing.

Here is a great example of
just how the fresh prepared food space is driving disruption. This example comes from Korea where the Korean
Bizwire reports that today convenience stores lead rice consumption due to the
dramatic increase in ‘lunch box sales’.
Foodservice Solutions® team has reported the dramatic growth of the Korean Lunch Box for the past five years.

Here is some background: “Once a diet staple,
rice consumption is rapidly declining in Korea. Over the past 30 years,
Korea’s rice consumption per capita has more than halved, dropping from 128.1kg
in 1985 to 62.9kg in 2015, with Koreans adopting Westernized diets seeking
alternatives like wheat or bread.

Amid the changing food culture, however, rice
purchases by convenience stores are on a steep rise, driven by the recent popularity
of convenience store lunch boxes.”

.

According to convenience store franchise CU,
its food manufacturing facilities “purchased roughly 5,500 tons of rice in the
first half of 2016, which was a 71.9 percent increase from H1 2015
(3,200t).

At this rate, CU’s total rice consumption for
2016 will almost double the value for last year (6,400t) to 11,500 tons, a
company official said. “

7-Eleven has seen a similar increase, “with
its H1 2016 figure standing at 5,400 tons, and officials are expecting this
year’s figure to see an 80 percent increase from last year’s amount of 6,100
tons.

Together with GS25, the three convenience
store enterprises will be accounting for more 30,000 tons of rice consumption
in 2016.”

Pantry busting indeed as from January to
August 2016, “CU saw its sales of lunch boxes almost triple compared to the
same period last year, while GS25 and 7-Eleven sales increased by factors of
2.76 and 2.54, respectively.” So what does a ‘Lunch Box Look Like”:

Lunch meals sold at conveniences stores come in
a wide variety of options, including menus like ribs, pork cutlets, and bulgogi
(grilled marinated beef), and at affordable prices, ranging between 3,000 won
($2.66) and 4,000 won.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® tracks the undercurrents of
consumer migration. Local, sustainable new To-Go, Take-Out, and Take-Away fresh
food options threaten restaurant growth. Companies the ilk of Buc-ee’s, Green Zebra Grocery, and Everytable are driving change. These new fresh food options are coming from
unexpected non-traditional retailers. Many of these non-traditional food
retailers are fast becoming the new normal in food retail. Do you know how The Home Meal Replacement fad of the 1980’s evolved into the
Grocerant Niche and is today is now garnering restaurant customers and market
share?

Can you harkin back in the day, during the late
Home Meal Replacement frenzy grocery stores, C-stores and restaurants all
studied with excitement the successful developments of Phil Romano's
Eatzi's. Eatzi's is Where Phil
turned the page from restaurateur too foodservice retailer and food merchant.
Phil's experiment was a smashing success.

The first
grocerant according to our Grocerant Guru®, Eatzi’s was then and remains a
concept that is consumer interactive, participatory with visceral authenticity
recording sales of 17 Million a year at the original store. Today Eataly is Eatzi’s on steroids doing close to 60 Million a year
in sales.

The Home Meal
Replacement focus quickly faded away as grocery stores tried to make fresh
prepared food a CPG product and in many cases they continue trying to do that
today. Today the grocerant niche is the strategic path of choice for
non-traditional fresh prepared food retailers, targeted at restaurant
customers, profitable, and expanding at an ever increasing pace.

Fresh Food can be Omni-Channel

One example is Wawa, it was once considered a convenience store now the Wawa
positions it's brand as Fresh First, Built-To Order and Ready-To-Go with focus of serving Fast Casual Food - To Go. At Wawa customers are now finding;
What's for Breakfast, What's for Lunch, and now What's for Dinner.

Sheetz once a
convenience store now calls themselves a restaurant that sells gas.Sheetz Made To Order food is a hit with
customers. Sheetz is successful contemporizing legacy C-store products with
differentiation, customization and personalization.

McDonald’s learned
from companies like Wawa and Sheetz that consumer like the variety, 24 hour
menu serving all day parts - all day long - with a wide range of consumer meal
and snacking needs. Breakfast 24 / 7 at McDonalds is proof positive success
does leave clues. That’s right Sheetz is
a Restaurant that just happens to sell Gas.

Rutter's is another
convenience store in transition. Rutter's understands the unique balance
between palate, price, pleasure, and the consumer's drive for qualitative
distinctive differentiated new messaging and Rutter's is meeting that need set.

The food value
proposition equilibrium for the consumer
today balances; better for you, flavor, and traditional products all
blended into something with a twist. In industry speak, differentiated does not
mean different to the consumer it means familiar. Rutter's is an example of
brand identity extending beyond consumer expectations within the traditional
conveniences store sector. Too the consumer Rutter's is a direct valued
competitor within the QSR space.

Today's Grocerant

The grocerant
niche is a result of the blurring of the line between restaurants, grocery
stores, convenience stores, and drug stores all selling fresh prepared,
portable convenient meal solutions. Targeted at the time-starved consumer with
Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food components that are "better
for you", portable and portioned for one or two. All of these operators
want a larger share of the retail food market. They want to take share from the
restaurants.

Whole Foods is no longer Whole Paycheck but Whole Foods 365 Fresh Food Fast
and consumers find that is "better for you". They are driving
customer frequency while building loyalty with Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and
Heat-N-Eat better for you food. Whole Foods focus is on convenient meal
participation, better for you differentiation, and individualization.

Duane Reade Fresh Food Is a Disruptive Force in the Retail Food Sector.

This video of Walgreens in San Francisco entering the fresh food space is evidence that no food retailer should dismiss as not
my competitor. Walgreens with over 80 Billion in sales has the capital and
resources to repeatedly try and try again until they get it right. Walgreens
might just be The Next Biggest Competitor
in the retail food space.

Duane Reade is part of Walgreens that has
8,177+ retail outlets. Who is selling what in your back yard? With Walgreens
entering the fresh food area again with meats, wraps, soups "and other
on-the-go meal options, as well as convenient alternatives for tonight's family
meal, it is clear that the future of fresh food retail leadership may be up in
the air.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®, with extensive experience as a multi-unit operator, consultant and
brand/product positioning. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has
been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more Foodservice Solutions®
visit The Grocerant on LinkedIn or @Grocerant on Twitter